Jet Set Radio Future

anthem.:.south

A Fan Fiction by Segal

.no new characters.

.no overdone action.

.no drama queens

.life is what life is.

----

Losing sleep for days,

is this just a phase?

Or are there other ways?

What I'm saying doesn't want to come out.

----

Part I: south.

Chapter I: All Deliberate Speed

Garam climbed up the stairs from Chuo Street's slum half, and removed his goggles. The wreckage was incredible; a sign of power from the new gangs that had risen since Gouji's death. The dinosaur statue was nothing more than a heap of steel chunks and beams crumbled in the center of the square.

"This isn't... how it's supposed to be," he thought silently, replacing his goggles, and emerging from the stairwell.

Most of new gangs were actually just people rioting about the loss of control. Since Gouji's death, Tokyo had gotten out of hand. People had taken advantage of the lack of a government and commited various crimes, which made the populous as well as the people trying to replace the government terrified. People were rioting for control, but this only lead to less control, but no one could seem to see that.

People began emerging from their hiding places in the shops, and the corners of the square. All gathering around in the square in stunned silence around the wreckage of the signs, posts, and other destroyed pieces. There was a crackle of electricity as a lit sign fell off a building near the exit ramps. It smashed on impact to the ground and sparks jumped from it and died on the ground.

Garam's headphones buzzed on, and Gum's voice crackled over the signal.

"Garam, what happened? You cut off and-"

"Nothing... the riots came to Chuo."

"You call that nothing?! What's it like there?"

"It's a disaster, you know the dino-statue? It's gone down, and the place looks like it was hit by a-"

"Hurricane, I know. Don't bother finishing, did you find any other gangs?"

"Graffiti gangs? No."

"Damn... get to Hikage, Jazz and Soda are searching there."

"...."

"What? Garam?!"

"Nothing. I just can't believe you're sending me right back out there after that."

"I can't- we can't spare time just because you got scared."

"Scared nothing, I nearly got kil-"

Gum cut the connection, and soon Garam's attention focused back to the situation at hand. He let out a shuddered breath and walked through the circle of people surrounding the statue. Though he looked at the ground, he know the skies were heavily clouded today, maybe the city's own way of reflecting how it felt today. Or maybe it was a coincidence, like the truth.

He shook his head in disgust of how the city had changed. How long had it been since Gouji and the Tower of Ultimate Beauty? One week? Yeah. One week, that's all it had taken for this place to go straight to hell. And, sadly enough, it was their own fault, he realized. If they hadn't killed Gouji, he would've been done off with eventually, but they rushed it, and just made things worse. These thoughts continued rushing in his head as he walked through Chuo Street. Their fault? Couldn't be, they did the streets a favor... or had they? A government official would've replaced Gouji sooner or later, the street gangs could've survived until then...

The clockwork in the streets started again, and Garam was soon drowning in his own guilt and thoughts. People filed by, but nobody took notice of a rudie anymore. No one knew who to blame, no one knew who the guilty felon was. But Garam did.

"Too much time to think..," whispered Garam as he exited Chuo Street and walked down Shibuya Terminal.

"STOP RIGHT THERE!"

Garam snapped his head up and looked around for the voice's master. He didn't find the person who had shouted at him, but he heard it again. This time looking around, he saw a swarm of officers, possibly twenty emerge from the parked vehicles, behind walls, and out of the bus stops. They weren't moving. Yet. Garam saw a movement from the corner of his eye, and saw the overworked Hayashi standing on top of a bus stop, perfectly still, staring like the wrath of God.

"So, are you proud of yourself?" asked Hayashi.

"...proud?" asked Garam after a long pause.

This wasn't normal of Hayashi, normal would be spastic and screaming. But now he seemed at an all time calm, as if he had taken an over dosage of Ritalin.

"Look at what you've done... just look around you," said Hayashi, his voice cracking, going back to it's usual high.

"...yeah...," trailed Garam, taking out a spray can, preparing to dash away at any moment.

Hayashi's eyes began to calm down from their wide-eyed fiery, and his mouth sealed itself. He looked sullenly down at the roof of the bus shelter he was standing on, and quietly muttered,"Get out of here, kid."

Garam stepped slowly backwards holding tightly onto the can, and after a few seconds, he bolted around and began skating away as fast as his wheels would carry him. Hayashi waited a few moments, and fired at him, missing and hitting parked car instead.

"Chase him!" he commanded firmly, and in moments the whole of his followers began to chase after the rudie, like a swarm of bees after a child who had disturbed their nest.

Garam's heart jumped, and he started a boost dash which used ten of his twelve cans. In an instant as if the world had decided to direct this moment of his life like a movie, the rain began to fall, hard and relentless. Garam could hardly believe the misfortune, when a weak piece of asphalt behind him exploded from Hayashi's pistol behind him, and his mind snapped back to attention.

His mind raced, he couldn't decide where to go. Not Hikage, his friends were there, but not Dokenzaga, it was a loop and he could get caught there. He jumped onto a stair rail and grinded upwards, ditching the police who had to climb the stairs to catch him. Then it hit him, 99th Street would be an easy place to lose them. He was ready to jump off the railing and go through Sakura Plaza to make it to 99th, but he hadn't thought when he grinded upwards. He was an easy target for Hayashi - like a side-scrolling target at a shooting gallery.

There was a crack of a bullet being launched from a pistol, then the quiet sound of skin being torn, and then, the snapping of a bone. The bullet lodged in his leg and shocked him enough to send him over the side. Falling over the side face first towards the asphalt, he gasped for air as he knew he wouldn't recover in time to flip onto his feet, and even if he did, he wouldn't get away. He fell towards the wet black asphalt his eyes dulling, but his body screaming. Two feet from the ground a pair of arms covered by a blue jacket reached forth and padded his legs and chest from the fall, and took off with him using boost dashes frequently to lose the police.

Garam looked up at a familiar tattered scarf flapping in his face in front of him, leading his savior, Soda by the owner's hand. Garam gritted his teeth and closed his eyes as he let his head fall back and let his pain carry him to sleep.